The present invention relates to a new and improved sheet material handling apparatus and method and, more specifically, to a sheet material handling apparatus and method in which an inserter assembly feeds inserts into collated assemblies of signatures disposed on a main conveyor.
A known sheet material handling apparatus includes a saddle conveyor having collecting (collating) stations which are sequentially moved past signature feed hoppers. The signatures are fed one at a time from each of the hoppers in turn onto the saddle conveyor to form a collated assembly of signatures at each of the collecting stations on the saddle conveyor. Typically, the collated assembly of signatures is stitched (stapled) at a stitching station. A loose card inserter is provided to insert subscription cards, advertising materials, or the like between selected pages of signature assemblies.
The signature supply hoppers, stitcher drive and other mechanisms are all disposed to one side, that is, the rear of the apparatus. One or more operators are provided at the rear of the apparatus to load signatures into the hoppers. In addition, the operators can perform other functions at the rear of the apparatus.
Typically, the loose card inserter is located at the front of the apparatus and its hopper must be filled on the order of thirty to thirty-five times or more per eight hour shift. In order to replenish the supply of loose cards in the loose card inserter, an operator must move to he loose card inserted in the front of the apparatus. This has been a problem. Frequently, replenishing the supply of loose cards has been overlooked, and thus signature assemblies do not receive a card when they should. Also, this has resulted in the provision of an operator to fill the loose card inserter at the front of the apparatus.
Also, typically a known loose card feeder is located adjacent the stitcher and has a relatively high profile. Since this known loose card feeder feeds separate cards individually from a hopper, it is subject to miss feeding and double feeding and thus it would be desirable to have a more reliable card feeder. The presence of the high profile loose card inserter makes it difficult for a operator to work on the stitcher. Also, since the known loose card feeders require separate individual cards to be supplied to its hopper, it is necessary to separate the cards from each other prior to the cards being located in the hopper of the card feeder.